Latest market data

Stock search

Minimum wage has been a hot-button issue in the last year for
franchises across the country. Now, after months of protests and
counter-protests, franchises in one major city are being forced
to make changes – and being told that they aren't small
businesses.

On Monday, the Seattle City Council unanimously passed an
ordinance to increase the city's minimum wage to $15 per hour,
the highest in America.

The plan gives small-business owners seven years to adopt the $15
wage, but gives franchise owners only three years. Why? The new
rules treat franchises as businesses with more than 500 employees
nationally, thereby holding them to different standards.

Arguing that franchisees should be grouped with other
small-business owners, the International Franchise Association
announced plans to file a lawsuit against the city of Seattle.

"These hundreds of franchise small-business owners are being
punished simply because they chose to operate as franchisees,"
the trade group's CEO Steve Caldeira in a statement.
"Decades of legal precedent have held that franchise businesses
are independently-owned businesses and are not operated by the
brand’s corporate headquarters."

The IFA reports that the minimum wage increase will affect 600
franchisees in Seattle who own 1,700 franchise locations and
employ 19,000 workers.

Over the past year, the IFA has fought against minimum wage hikes
across the U.S., arguing that many franchised businesses operate
on thin profit margins and that businesses should be able to
independently determine competitive wages within their local
economies. Meanwhile, local and national governments have been
pushed by labor advocates, including fast-food franchise
employees, to raise the minimum wage.